Why are these Fed-retirement threads SO predictable after a loss? Remember he's still making semis & finals of big events with regularity. It's not like Sampras in 2001-2002 going out early all the time.

Why are these Fed-retirement threads SO predictable after a loss? Remember he's still making semis & finals of big events with regularity. It's not like Sampras in 2001-2002 going out early all the time.

It's not just a loss. Watching the match, it was how he lost. Murray beat him pretty easily. I thought at the Olympics when murray crushed him that he was just tired from having that super busy schedule and that's why he wasn't moving well. Well this time, federer had a ton of rest and murray played the same way and federer got crushed again. That loss plants seeds in your head of why you're playing if you're not feeling like you're competing like you did previous encounters. That is why.

It's not just a loss. Watching the match, it was how he lost. Murray beat him pretty easily. I thought at the Olympics when murray crushed him that he was just tired from having that super busy schedule and that's why he wasn't moving well. Well this time, federer had a ton of rest and murray played the same way and federer got crushed again. That loss plants seeds in your head of why you're playing if you're not feeling like you're competing like you did previous encounters. That is why.

I don't mean to be pre-emptive and it is probably just because, although his english is very good it is not his first langauge,

Love how this is always trotted out as an excuse for some of the ridiculous things he says. English IS his first language. His mother is S African and spoke English to him and that was the first language he learned. He and Myrka are also using English as their daughters first language. He said this in an interview quite recently. Enough with the flimsy excuses for him.

I hope he's not calling it quits. What a crappy era we have coming up with ******* dominating every event. Just the thought of Fed hanging up his racket makes me sad.

Cheer up. Scotsman will take out the Sneering Serbian some of the time, maybe a lot of the time. Novie has plateaued but Scotty is improving. And Rog has plenty of good days left in him in which to spank both of them!

Last edited by PeteD : 10-13-2012 at 09:20 PM.
Reason: add last sentence

I thought he may have been planning on retiring after the Olympics a couple years ago when he was speaking at the end of the Toronto final..."see you in 2 years, and if not, then in Montreal" (paraphrasing).

But looking at it now, that was silly for me to think.

I think when Federer is going to retire, he will let us know. Right now he's probably having some difficulty with motivation having won Wimbledon, regained #1, and then being saddened by Roddick's retirement. When Nadal comes back healthy, that might be enough to refuel the fire.

He said himself that he's exhausted and needs a break. We'll get a much better sense for how much longer he wants to continue at next year's AO. I highly doubt he'd just retire at the end of this year, out of the blue.

After this year, he'll have met all 3 exemptions for masters events: 31 years of age, 12 years on tour.. and a certain number of match wins, which I've forgotten. That means he can elect to skip every single masters event without penalty if he chooses to. So flying halfway around the world for one tournament, and then back, during his typical fall break would be even less likely after this year. I was surprised he played shanghai this year, TBH.

If he does retire, he would probably retire right after a grandslam say USO, maybe Wimbledon.

I don't think so. He will retire in Basel, in a year when he hasn't qualified for London, the way Edberg did in Stockholm. They both are/were lucky to have their home tournament at the end of the season, so retiring there is the obvious choice, really.

Why are these Fed-retirement threads SO predictable after a loss? Remember he's still making semis & finals of big events with regularity. It's not like Sampras in 2001-2002 going out early all the time.

Actually, Sampras reached the same number of slam finals in that period as Fed did in 2011-2012 and if we take 2000-2002 period as an example, Sampras made more slam finals than Fed did in 2010-2012.

From 2000-2002 Pete won Wimbledon and made 3(!) USO finals in a row, something he never managed to achieve in his younger days.

It's not just a loss. Watching the match, it was how he lost. Murray beat him pretty easily. I thought at the Olympics when murray crushed him that he was just tired from having that super busy schedule and that's why he wasn't moving well. Well this time, federer had a ton of rest and murray played the same way and federer got crushed again. That loss plants seeds in your head of why you're playing if you're not feeling like you're competing like you did previous encounters. That is why.

I'm on the fence with this one. Federer has had worse losses in the last 1-2 years, remember when he lost to Murray in the final of Shanghai in 2010?

Besides, other than Borg (who virtually retired in his prime at 25), no other all-time great retired at a high. Sampras fluked out that US open win but he had 2 years of suckage. I would expect Federer to play for at least another 1-2 years, if he realizes the chances of winning majors are slim to none, then he will retire.

I agree that it can change and fast. Even though Federer has declined (who doesn't at 31?) he's still good enough to compete, damn the man is no 1 in the world as we speak, he's the current holder of Wimbledon, 4 Masters titles, the WTF and like 10 titles total.

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Just shows you how pointless H2H's are. Nadal beat Fed but in the end it meant jack, they both walked away with nothing. It's about winning titles.

I'm sure you're right. Fed loves his celebrity and all the worship and I'm sure when he's ready to go, he'll have a year long world tour to accept the adoration of the masses and all the media.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Federer20042006

He said himself that he's exhausted and needs a break.

Exhausted? But But But Fed is the master of scheduling. Isn't he the one that says there's no problem with the ATP schedule and that he's so much smarter than everyone else in dealing with it? He just had a six week break. He needs another one so soon?

Exhausted? But But But Fed is the master of scheduling. Isn't he the one that says there's no problem with the ATP schedule and that he's so much smarter than everyone else in dealing with it? He just had a six week break. He needs another one so soon?

He's exhausted at 31 years of age, believe it or not he's played more matches than anyone else on tour except Djokovic and Ferrer (both by a small margin).

At least he's not taking a 6 month break to recuperate like some.

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Just shows you how pointless H2H's are. Nadal beat Fed but in the end it meant jack, they both walked away with nothing. It's about winning titles.